The invention is based on a device for transmitting energy.
Such devices are provided, e.g., in vehicles to enable reliable transmission of current and/or light between terminal points that can rotate in the steering wheel and terminal points that are stationary in the area of the steering column. By means of the terminal points of such a device, e.g., an airbag system, a steering wheel heater, a shifting mechanism, etc., can be supplied with the voltage and signals necessary for their respective functions.
Such a device is known from DE 195 33 439 C1. In such a device, a plurality of flexible lines are contained within an annular cavity of a housing. One end of each of these flexible lines is fixed to the stator unit and the other end of the flexible line is fixed to a rotatable rotary component of the housing facing the stator unit.
The two broad sides of each of the flexible lines can be wound in at least one turn on the axially oriented inner wall of the housing and by means of a U-shaped reversing section, at a distance and in the opposite direction, there is at least one other turn on the axially oriented outer wall of the housing. Each of the two narrow sides of the flexible lines is held between the radially oriented base and the radially oriented cover of the housing. Such a configuration leads inevitably to relative movements between the flexible lines and the housing when the rotor unit rotates. This is the case, since the turns of the flexible lines associated with both the inner wall and the outer wall partially contact areas of the rotor unit and partially contact areas of the stator unit. In turn, such relative movements between the flexible lines and the housing lead to inevitable, disruptive noise, which for reasons of comfort is often intolerable.
Accordingly, the objective of the present invention is to disclose a device for transmitting energy, in which, by means of a simple design, the relative movement with touching contact between at least one flexible line in the annular cavity and the housing is reduced to a minimum.
It is advantageous in the case of such a configuration that the turns of the one or more flexible lines associated with the inner wall only contact the rotor unit and the turns of the one or more flexible lines associated with the outer wall only contact the stator unit. Then the device functions without producing disruptive noise.